How do you think of Microsoft? The operating system company? The guys who make Office? How ’bout the Xbox guys? Whatever your thoughts about them, Microsoft is bigger than that. They are into everything. And now you can be in their online store. Don’t get lost.

Corel is a great little software company that doesn’t get the respect they deserve. Their flagship product, CorelDRAW has just upgraded to version X6 (a “hip” way of saying version 16). We’ve been using it since 2.0. And them make a ton of other creative software as well. If you’re hating either Adobe or Microsoft, this plucky Canadian company competes head-to-head with both of the industry giants by producing their own office software suite and video creation software. If none of this rings a bell with you, you might know them for a little utility program they sell called WinZIP.

Best known for their anti-virus software, Symantec also produces software for all types of Internet security, system backup, and performance enhancement.

Webroot isn’t as well-known as Symantec, but they make some mighty fine and highly regarded Internet security products. I use it on my PC.